Longtime ESPN analyst Mel Kiper believes the University of Tennessee will again be a prominent program in cranking out NFL draft picks.
It just may take some time.
Tennessee is the only Southeastern Conference member that will not have representatives at the NFL combine, which starts next Tuesday and runs through March 4 in Indianapolis. The SEC is scheduled to have 90 players overall, including 11 from Alabama, nine each from Georgia and Ole Miss and eight apiece from Florida, Kentucky, Mississippi State and Texas A&M.
“It’s just a history of building it,” Kiper said Tuesday afternoon on a conference call. “I think Jeremy Pruitt’s recruiting class coming in this year is outstanding, so I think it will change. It’s all tied to that, and with these recruits that are coming in, they are going to get Tennessee back to having a lot of picks.
“It may not be this year, and it could go another year. Right now, Tennessee does not have anyone who has that early-round or even that mid-round type of grade, but I think that will change in the not-too-distant future.”